the installation is really easy. the product comes with 4 separate CDs so you get to choose how much of the bundled software you install. I only went for the drivers and the artRage software since I am not interested in the handwriting recognition part.

Set Up:

wacom settings

The Installation adds a preferences pane to your mac os X settings where everything can be configured.

Usability:

It takes some time to get used to the pen, but after a day or two you will not have any problems. I got the small tablet which is sufficient perfectly fine for my purposes.

ArtRage:

this software is very nice for practicing and goofing around with your tablet. it offers a lot of functionality and was made to be used with a tablet.

artrage 2.5

Adobe CS3

The main reason to wish for a wacom tablet was, that is works really well with adobe CS3 suite. I work a lot with flash, and I really like flashs drawing capabilities. I also tested photoshop, and it worked really well.

Verdict:

I used the tablet for just a few days now and I just love it. I recommend it any Mac user.

Update – Adobe CS 4 support:

I recently upgraded from Adobe CS 3 to Adobe CS 4 and it works just as fine. After using the tablet for a couple of months now I still hold up my recommendation!

In order to cut down on energy usage I wanted my allwayson windows XP server to hibernate when not in use. My network adapter supports wakeOnLan and I also had it configured in a minute. Make sure Wake on Lan is activated in your Bios as well as in the configuration menu of the networking card.

Wake On Lan settings on the server

be sure to check all three boxes. The last box makes sure your pc does not wake up from random networking traiffc.

this is what it looks like on a mac

Then I go to my macbook pro and fire up this tool http://gsd.di.uminho.pt/jpo/software/wakeonlan/ which is a small free but fully functional wake on lan tool for macs that is able to send the so called magic packets that wake up a computer in standby or hibernation mode. There are a ton of tools like this for windows as well. google is your friend.

wake550

So within the network everything works just fine. I put in the mac address and the broadcasting IP which usually is something like 192.168.x.255 and hit go. seconds later my server is booting up. very nice.

Wake on Lan over the internet through a Airport Extreme basestation is a different story. In theory all you had to do is forward the UDP port 9 to the broadcasting IP of 192.168.x.255. So any magic package that hits your router on the wan port is automatically broadcasted over your local network in order to find the machine that needs to be powered up. pretty simple in theory.

1. Update 4.5.2009

2. Update 20.5.2009

Wake on lan over the internet

It is possible to do it over the internet on the long run. The important thing to understand is that the Airport extreme basestation still will not allow any broadcasting of outside traffic. It can be done however if you manually specifiy the ip address for the computer that should wake up. your are very likely to have your Airport Extreme Basestation hand out IP addresses to devices using DHCP. Your computer needs an IP reservation that will give it the same Ip every time it is on, so the magic package will always reach the correct machine. you can make such a reservation in the Airport utility at internet –> DHCP. The AEBS will only remeber the computer with the IP reservation for a short amount of time so it is not a long term solution.

You need the computers mac address to make this reservation, usually something like this xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx. Then head over to you computer’s network settings and asign the same IP you just reserverd manually to the computer.

Now you have to forward the UDP 9 port in the airport utility. Unlike previously assumed you do not want to forward it to the broadcasting IP but to the specific IP you asigned to the computer.

it is possible to use wake on lan within your local network/subnet if you have an Apple Airport Extreme Basestation, but it is not possible to wake up your machine over the internet since the AEBS will not forword the magic packages coming in at the UDP 9 Port.

It is possible to do wake on lan over the internet and on your local lan with your airport extreme basestation. Thanks a bunch for the commenter who came up with this idea!

It is possible to do wake a lan over the internet but after a short time the AEBS “forgets” the link to the computer and it will not work any more. Sry for the messy post, I will clean it up once I have figuered the damn problem out!

A year ago my Sony viao laptop broke while I was on a business trip in the Ukraine. After the 4 month nightmare I went through I just wanted to forget about Sony but now since my macbook pro broke as well I want to post the story and compare the Sony tech support with the apple tech support.

So I left my Sony viao notebook in the office for three weeks without ever turning it on and leaving the battery inside the casing – Don’t do that. Take the battery out – When I returned after three weeks the notebook was dead and there was no way of turning it back on. The battery somehow went dead during the three weeks of not using it and took along the main board.

So there I was in the Ukraine with another 4 weeks of work ahead of me without a laptop. Bad if you work as a webdesigner.

So I tried to call Sony support in Austria. Impossible since they use some weird phonesystem that can not be reached from abroad.

My dad called them and they told him there is no support for viao in Ukraine, and the support guy also pointed out that of is my fault If I travel to such “underdeveloped” countries like Ukraine.

Alright so I was lucky to borrow a computer from a colleague since there was no way of getting the broken laptop to Austria. A week before I went back to Austria a couple of friends came to visit me in Kiev and they took the laptop with them so Sony could finally pick it up for repair.

When I got back a week later the laptop was still at home waiting for Sony and it took another week till they picked it up. We are now 5 weeks from the day it broke.

After two weeks into repair I called Sony to find out how my notebook was doing. The online tool for support status did not work of course. The support guy told me that the main board was fried and they needed to order a new one and that it will take about another ten days.

I called after two weeks. The guy told me there are no more main boards for this two year old notebook so I will receive a replacement and Sony will call me with an offer. They never called.

I called again. By then I already know the thirty digits to dial by hearth. Well he was really surprised I haven’t gotten an offer yet and he will send a massage to sales again since they are in charge now. 2 months after the laptop broke.

Sales never called, so I called sales. Sales told me they are not in charge. So I called tech again. Again and again. By then I already knew the names of most call center employees, but I was refused to talk to a manager in charge. They don’t talk to clients.

After another week or so I finally got an offer. A laptop far worse than mine, but I accepted in order to avoid further delays and because was already determined to buy a mac at that point.

After a while I called again to ask about the shipment of the new notebook. They did not know anything about a new laptop to be shipped. I was alrwady tired of yelling to the stupid support people, but within a few days the finally managed to order a new laptop for me.

In the beginning of November I finally got my new useless piece of shit Sony vaio notebook.

I sold it in order to refinance my macbook pro that had been shipped to me two weeks before Sony’s even though the orders for both were placed in the same week.

Bottom line :

Do not buy a Sony product ever again!
They don’t care about customer satisfaction!
I hate Sony and their incompetent team of call center monkeys!

My dad is flying over the US for business and is getting me an Ipod touch since apple is converting euros and dollars I:I which kind of not reflects reality when looking at the actual rate of 1.4877. That means for me in Austria I get a 300 € Gadget for 200€, which is a pretty good discount. I can’t wait to unpack the thing!!

just a few more minutes till the Macworld 2008 kicks off. I am really excited this year since its my first Macworld with actually owning a mac. What do I wish for? I would like to see a G3 iphone since it would be a device that comes pretty close to

Search

friends

Categories

Sitemap

Send me an email

About Me

I try to learn something new every day.I create websites, flash and Adobe Air applications. I like simplicity. I speak German, English, Russian, Actionscript, javascript, php and a bit SQL. I live in Vienna Austria.